Automatic stop mechanism for addressing machines



April 22 1924.

Filed Oct. 25V. 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 mmmmmmmmm K I w r April 2z, 1924.1,491,13o

c. cHlsHoLM AUTOMATIC STOP MECHANISM FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES Filed Oct.25, 1920 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Patented Apr. 22, 1924.

nire STATES PATENroFFicSE.

CLIFTON CHISHOLM, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, ASSIGNOR TO AMERICAN MLTIGRAPHCOMPANY, OF CLEVELAND, OHIO, A CORPORATION OF OHIO.

AUTOMATIC STOP MECHANISM FOR ADDRESSING MACHINES.

Application filed October 25, 1920. Serial No. 419,222.

T all whom t may concern.'

Be it known that I, CLIFTON CI-risHoLM, a citizen of the United States,residing at Cleveland, in the county of Cuyahoga and State of Ohio, haveinvented a certain new and useful Improvement in Automatic StopMechanism for Addressing Machines, of which the following is a. full,clear, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanyingdrawings.

This invention relates to mechanism adapted to form a part of anaddressing machine and operate to stop the operation upon the arising ofsome contingency, for instance, the failure of the paper to properlyfeed or the magazine of address plates becoming empty.

One of the objects of the invention is to make such mechanism simple andat the same time eticient. Thus I have designed the paper feeling partswith such lightness and ease of operation that they are very efficientand readily operate for the thinnest paper used as well as for theheavier grades.

Another object is to enable practically the same mechanism to throw outa controlling clutch either when the paper fails to feed or the magazinebecomes empty.

The invention is illustrated in an approved form in the drawings hereof,and is hereinafter more fully explained and its essential novel featuressummarized in the claims.

In the drawings Fig. 1 is a sectional side elevation of the machine;Fig. 2 is a rear elevation of a portion of the machine; Fig. 3 is acontinuation toward the right of Fig. 2, part of this view being insection; Figs. 4- and 5 are details illustrating the position of one ofthe paper engaging rolls which controls the clutch, first where thepaper is absent, and second where the paper is present.

Referring by numerals to the parts shown in the drawings, 10 indicatesthe bed of the machine, and 11 one of a pair of suitable frame standardsrising therefrom. In these standards are mounted a shaft 12 for thepaper feeding drum 13 and a shaftlt on which the platen 15 isjournalled. 20 indicates a vertical magazine for address plates, anumber of which are shown at 21. These plates descend by gravity, andthe lowermost one is engaged and fed to the right (Fig. 1) by conveyerchains 24C running over sprockets 25 on a shaft 26 and over othersprockets-not shown-on the shaft 14 which is suitably geared with theshaft 12. These chains have lugs 29 adapted to engage the plates andfeed them to the impression members. The chain may be kept taut byadjusting the position of the bearing 28 of the shaft 26. 30 and 81indicate suitable inking rollers adapted to ink the characters on theaddress plates as they pass between the roller 31 and supporting roller32.

The mechanism above described is shown incidentally to illustrate theoperation of the automatic stop mechanism which forms the subject matterof this application. The particular paper feed drum shown is describedmore fully and claimed in my co-pending rcissue application No. 356,279,filed Feb. 4, 1920, which has matured into Reissue Patent No. 15,1119dated July 25, 1922. As here shown it comprises, beside the body 18, apair of segmental yielding platen members 40, mounted on the body, and apair of rings 4-1 at the end of the body and having their outerperiphery flush with the periphery of the segmental members.Co-operating with these rings are rollers 50 and 51 which have theiraxes parallel with the shaft 12 and project thru openings in astationary guard plate 52.

The paper is fed by mechanism-not shown-but which may be in accordancewith my Patent No. 1,285,623, issued November 26, 1918, from a positionabove the paper feeding drum downwardly toward the left in Fig. 1,between the drum and the shield 52. The paper when passing between theshield and drum isheld against the drum by the rollers 50 and 51 actingsuccessively on the paper until it comes kabove the im pression platen.Atthis time one of the segmental members 40 is above the platen 15 andone of the plates is in a similar position, so that the plate and paperare fed together toward the right in Fig. 1 between the yieldingpressure platen 15 and one of the yielding segmental platens 10.

To cause the operation of the paper feed and conveyer to stop, in caseof failure of either the paper or plates, I drive the shaft 12 by meansof a clutch which is thrown out by the mechanism about to be described.Fig. 2 shows at 60 a driving pulley loose on the shaft 12, and at 61 ashiftable clutch splined to the shaft and adapted to couple the pulleywith it, or leave it disconnected therefrom. 62 indicates a suitableshipper lever for shift ing this splined clutch collar. This shipperlever is preferably equipped with a handle 64 for manual operationwhenever desired; for the automatic operation it carries a blade 65extending into a peripheral notch 71 in a longitudinally shiftable bar70, as snown in Fig. 2. This figure shows a spring 73 tending to forcethis bar in the direction to disengage the clutch.- Such movement isnormally restrained, but may be allowed by actuation of the paper feelermechanism to be described.

Pivotally mounted on a stationary frame rod 75 are a pair of arms 76 and7 6a which arer bent as shown in Fig. 1 and carry at their ends rollers77 adapted to ride on the rings 41. In these rings are formed segmentalgrooves 45 which in the rotation of the drum come opposite the rollers77. Now, if paper is present bridging the grooves 45, the rollers willbe thereby held out of the grooves in the saine position they occupywhen other portions of the drum are opposite them. Fig. 5 indicates at Aa l sheet of paper, or an envelope, on the drum bridging the groove 45and shows now this maintains the roller 77 in its normal position.

If there is a failure of the paper to properly feed, then when theuncovered groove 45 comes opposite the roller 77, the rolle-r will atonce drop by gravity into the groove 45, as shown in Fig. 4. Now, whenthe rear end 45FL of the groove reaches the roller it forces itoutwardly with somewhat of a blow. This snaps the roller and its armupwardly, so that the arm strikes against a light sheet metal stirrup 80and raises it. This stirrup, as shown in Fig. 2, is pivotally mounted onthe rod 75 and has a projection 82 standing against the side of a collar79 on the longitudinally movable rod 70. The blow of the arm 76 raisesthis stirrup sutilciently to clear the collar 79, whereupon the spring73 forces the rod 70 toward the right (Fig. 2) and thus operates theshipper lever 62 to disengage the clutch.

By reason of the blow operation described the paper feeling arms may belight enough to be supported in their inactive position by the thinnestpaper used bridging the recesses 45, at the same time the spring 73 maybe strong enough to effectively shift the clutch lever and normally holdthe parts in position against accidental displacement.

It is desirable that the mechanism be arranged to feed two envelopes foreach rotation of the drum 13, or one envelope, or a sheet of paper, whenthe saine are of larger size. To accomplish this I provide the twoplatens 40, and I arrange them so that one or both of them may bepresented to the successive address plates; that is to say, I providechange speed gearing adapted to be shifted to cause the drum 13 to malleeither one rotation or a half rotation for each address plate fed. Sucha system is shown, described and claimed in my prior application No.371,722, tiled April 6, 1920. In the present invention I provide twopaper feeling arms 76 and 76, and I arrange one of these to have apossible operation only once for each rotation of the drum 13, while theother' may possibly operate twice for each rotation. This arrangementand the mechanism for rendering only one arm or the other active, inaccordance with the condition of the change speed gearing, will now bedescribed.

As shown in Fig. 3, the shaft 12 which carries the printing drum alsoserves to drive the conveyer cha-ins thru variable gearing. In Fig. 3,and 91 indicate meshing gears of the same size on the shafts 12 and 14.92 and 93 indicate meshing gears on these shafts, the latter gear havingtwice the diameter of the former. The gears 91 and 93 are tight on theshaft 14, which operates the conveyer chains, the impression platen 5being loose on the shaft.

The driving gears 90 and 92 are both loose on the shaft 12, and eitherof them may be clutched to this shaft by a sliding key 95 which occupiesa lreyway in the shaft 12 and has a radially projecting end adapted toengage a'notch 96 in the hub of the gear 90, or a notch 97, in the hub92. As shown in Fig. 3 when the key projection occupies an intermediateposition both gears are out of action.

To shift the key 95, I form a projection at its outer end, whichoccupies a peripheral groove in a bushing carried by aA shiftablebracket 101. This bracket is mounted on a sliding rod 102. On this rodare a pair of collars 103 and 104 having inclined edges, as shown inFig. 2. These collars are adapted to clear or engage their respectivearms 76, 7 6a, and are so positioned that when one collar is engagingits arm the other collar is free therefrom, as shown in Fig. 2.

Tf the bracket 101 be in the position shown in Fig. 3,the gear 92 willbe locked to the shaft and the collar 103 will be brought beneath thearm 76, the collar 104 clearing the arm 7 6a. The arm 76 and its roller77 are thus held inactive, but the arm 763L and its roller are active.The drum ring which co-operates with the roller of this arm has onearcuate groove 45, so that but one test will be made for the presence orabsence of paper for each rotation of the drum 13. When the gear 92 isactive, as now supposed, the conveyer chain shaft 14 will make a halfrotation for each rotation of the drum 13.

Each half rotation of the shaft 14 brings a fresh plate to the printingposition, since the conveyer chain lugs 29 are spaced a distancecorresponding to half the periphery of the sprockets on the shaft l14which carry the chains. Accordingly each rotation of the shaftf12 feedseitherone large envelope or a sheet of paper, and one test is made forits presence or absence. f

If the bracket 101 be drawn toward the right from the position shown inFig. 3,'the

gear 90 will be coupled to the shaft 12 and at the same time the collar104 will raise the arm 76a into inactive position and the arm 76 willbecome active being freed by the removalof the collar 103. With thisgear connection there will be one rotation of the shaft 14 for eachrotationof the shaft 12. As the plate feeding lugs 29 on the conveyerchains are spaced a distance corresponding to half the periphery of thesprockets on the shaft 14, it followsthat each rotation of this shaftwill bring two plates to printing position, and this would require twopieces of paper, or envelope, to be printed. This is the coupling whichI employ for ordinary envelopes,'one being printed when one of thesegmental platens 40 is active and the other when the other platen 40 isactive. The arm 76 which is active under these circumstances has itsroller 77 riding on a ring 41 which carries two arcuate grooves 45, asshown in Fig. 1, so that in this case the two tests are made for eachrotation of the drum.

It will be seen from the above description that myy stop mechanism isautomatically positioned in correspondence with the change in the`gearing when the machine is changed from ordinary envelopes to largesize envelopes or paper, or vice versa, the simple shoving in or pullingout of the bracket 101 accomplishing both the adjustment of theL gearingand of the throw-out mechanism in avery simple manner.

To enable the same throw-out mechanism to stop the operation when thesupply magazine becomes empty, I provide an arm 110 pivoted to the sideof the' magazine at 111 and adapted to lie against the forward edge ofthe plates. To the upper end of this arm is pivoted a bar 112 whichrests at its rear end on the rod 102 and intermediately extends beneaththe stirrup 80, having a recess 114 normally occupied by the crossmember of the stirrup. Ordinarily'the bar 112 is idle, but` whenever themagazinebecomes empty the arm 110I becomes-thereby freed from restraint,and a spring 116 swings the upper end of this arm forwardly to cause theinclined shoulder on the bar 112 at the rear of its notch y114 to camthe stirrup upwardly'. yThis releases the rod 70 which is thereupon'moved by its spring to swing the` shipper` lever to disenga-ge theclutch, in the same manner as heretofore described.

Having thus described my invention, I claim:

1. In an addressing machine, the combination,-with a rotary .papersupport havinga recess, a member adapted to move into-the recess whenthe paper is absent, and means whereby the return of such member fromthe` recess will efecta stoppage in the operation of the machine.

2. In' a machine of the character described, the combination, of arotary member about which paper'may be fed, said member having a groove,a `roller adapted `to stand opposite the groove and bear against paperbridging the groove, means carrying the roller and allowing it to moveinto the groove when paper is absent, and means operated by the returnof said roller for stopping the operation.

3. In a machine of the character described, the combination, of a rotarydrum with which paper may travel, said drum having an arcuate groove, amember adapted to bear on the paper opposite said groove, and mechanismoperated by the entry of the said member into the groove and its returntherefrom for stopping the rotation of the drum.

4. The combination, of awrotary drum, means for guiding paper on theperiphery thereof, said drum having a recess adapted to be bridged bythe paper, an arm, a roller carried thereby and adapted to bear on thepaper where it bridges the recess, aclutch, and mechanism operated bysaid arm for throwing the clutch.

5. The combination, of a rotary drum, means for guiding paper about theperiphery thereof to be fed with lthe drum, said drum having an arcuaterecess, an arm, a roller carried bythe arm and adapted to enter therecess when the paper is absent, but v be held out of the recess whenthe paper is present on the drum, means for stopping the operation ofthe machine andmechanism for operating said means,'which mechanism isoperated by the return movement of said arm after the roller has enteredthe recess.

6. 'Ihe combination, of a rotary drum adapted to have paper travel withitl about its periphery, a recess in such periphery, a movable memberadapted to bear against the paper in a position which in some portion ofthe rotation is opposite the recess, a clutch, mechanism for disengagingthe same, and means whereby thel impact of saidmember, as it comes outof the recess, throws said disengaging mechanism.

. 7 The combination, of a rotary drum adapted to have paper travel withit about its periphery, a recess in such periphery, a movable memberadapted to' bear against the paper in a position which in some portionof the rotation is opl osite the recess, a clutch, a spring pressemechanism tending to move the clutch into disengaged position, means fornormally restraining the spring action of such mechanism, and meanswhereby the impact of said member when it leaves the recess may move therestraining member to idle position.

8. In a machine of the character described, the combination, with meansfor guiding and feeding paper, of a feeler bearing on the paper andadapted to be opposite a recess on the other side of the paper, aclutch, a spring device tending to release the clutch, and restrainingmeans adapted to hold the clutch engaged, and means whereby the impactof said feeler as it leaves the recess will move said restraining meansto idle position.

9. The combination, with an impression platen, of a drum coactingtherewith and having a plurality of impression surfaces, change speedgearing to cause paper to be fed to one or more of said surfaces,throwout device to stop the machine when the paper fails, and means forconcurrently changing the gearing and correspondingly adjusting thethrowout device.

10. In a machine of the character described, the combination, of arotary drum, means for feeding, as desired, either one or two articlesfor each rotation of the drum, a throwout device having two feeler's,one operative once a rotation, and the other operative twice a rotation,and means for rendering one or the other feele'rs activeraccordingtowhether the mechanism is feeding one or two articles for each rotation.

11. In a machine of the character described, the combination, of aplaten, a rotary paper feeding drum coacting therewith, and having twoimpression surfaces, conveyer means for feeding plates between the drumand platen, changeable gearing between the drum and the conveyer meansto enable either one or two plates to coa'ct with the drum, a clutch forstopping the koperation, a throwout device for the 'clutch having twofeelers coacting with the drum. one arranged to operate once a rotationand the other twice a rotation, and a device for simultaneously shiftingthe gearing and rendering the corresponding feeler active and the otherinactive.

12. In a device of the character described, the combination, o'f abottom feed address plate magazine, a conveyer, a clutch Yfor drivingthe conveyer, mechanism for moving the clutch to disengaged position,and a movable member adapted to bear against a plate -in the magazineand be thereby restrained frein operation, and mechanism operated bysaid movable member when the plates are absent for releasing the clutchdisengaging means.

13. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a bottom feed supplymagazine, a conveyer, an arm bearing against a plate in the magazine, aclutch for operating the conveyer, mechanism for releasing the clutch,and means operated by the movement of said arm when the plate is absentfor actuating the clutch releasing means.

14. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a supply magazine foraddress plates, a leve-r adapted to engage said plates and be restrainedthereby, a clutch, a spring pressed member tending to uncouple theclutch, but normally restrained, and means connected with said lever forremoving the restraint when the lever moves consequent upon the absenceof the plates in the magazine;

' 15. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a magazine, aconveyer adapted to receive plates therefrom, a clutch for moving theconveyer, a shipper lever for the clutch, a spring pressed member fortending to move the shipper lever to open the cltuch, a deviceforrestraining the movement of said member, a lever adjacent to themagazine and held idle by the presence of plates therein, but adapted tobe moved when the plates are absent, and an operative connection betweensaid lever and the means which restrains said member.

16. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a sup-ply magazine, aconveyer, a pair of impression members to which the conveyer may carryplates from the magazine, one of said impression members being adaptedto act as a paper feeding roller, mechanism operated by the absence ofplates in the magazine, another mechanism operated by the absence ofpaper on the roller,

and a single throwout device operated by either of said mechanisms.

17. In an addressing machine, the combination, of a supply magazine, aconveyer, a pair of impression members to which the conveyer may carryplates from the magazine, one of said impression members being adaptedvto act as a paper feeding roller, mechanism operated b v the absence ofpaper on the roller, a. clutch adapted to control the movement of boththe paper roller and the conveyer, a spring pressed member tending torelease said clutch, and means for restraining said member, said meansbeing movable to idle position by either of the mechanisms mentioned.

V18. In an adressing machine, the combination, of a supply magazine, aconveyer, a pair of impression rollers between which the conveyer mayconvey plates from the magazine,- means whereby one of said rollers actsas a paper feed drum, a recess in such drum adapted to be bridged by thepaper When present, a feeler cooperating with Said recess and adapted tobe held out of it by the paper, an arm tending to move into the magazineand adapted to be held out of it by the presence of plates therein, aclutch for controlling the movement of both the conveyer and thek meansinitiated by and eeler or the clutch.

paper feed drum, either the paper plate leve]` for opening the mysignature.

CLIFTON CHISHOLM.

